Distribute is intended to replace Setuptools as the standard method
for working with Python module distributions.

The fork has two goals:

Providing a backward compatible version to replace Setuptools
and make all distributions that depend on Setuptools work as
before, but with less bugs and behaviorial issues.

This work is done in the 0.6.x series

Starting with version 0.6.2, Distribute supports Python 3.
Installing and using distribute for Python 3 code works exactly
the same as for Python 2 code, but Distribute also helps you to support
Python 2 and Python 3 from the same source code by letting you run 2to3
on the code as a part of the build process, by setting the keyword parameter
use_2to3 to True. See docs/python3.txt for more information.

Refactoring the code, and releasing it in several distributions.
This work is being done in the 0.7.x series but not yet released.

You can get more information in the Sphinx-based documentation, located
in the archive in docs. This documentation includes the old Setuptools
documentation that is slowly replaced, and brand new content.

The Distribute installer modifies your installation by de-activating an
existing installation of Setuptools in a bootstrap process. This process
has been tested in various installation schemes and contexts but in case of a
bug during this process your Python installation might be left in a broken
state. Since all modified files and directories are copied before the
installation, you will be able to get back to a normal state by reading
the instructions in the Uninstallation instructions section.

In any case, it is recommended to save you site-packages directory before
you start the installation of Distribute.

Since Distribute is a fork, and since it provides the same package and modules,
it fakes that the Setuptools installation is still present, so all the programs
that where using Setuptools still work.

If it wasn't doing it, a program that would try to install Setuptools
would overwrite in turn Distribute.

How does Distribute interacts with virtualenv?

Everytime you create a virtualenv it will install setuptools, so you need to
re-install Distribute in it right after. The Distribute project will not
attempt to patch virtualenv so it uses it when globally installed.

Once installed, your virtualenv will use Distribute transparently.

Although, if you have Setuptools installed in your system-wide Python,
and if the virtualenv you are in was generated without the --no-site-packages
option, the Distribute installation will stop.

You need in this case to build a virtualenv with the --no-site-packages option
or to install Distribute globally.

How does Distribute interacts with zc.buildout?

Some work is being done on zc.buildout side to make its bootstrap
work with Distribute. Until then, using Distribute in zc.buildout is a bit
tricky because the bootstrap process of zc.buildout hardcodes the
installation of Setuptools.

The plan is to come with a custom bootstrap.py for zc.buildout for the
0.6.3 release, together with some small changes on zc.buildout side.